The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), the world’s largest global provider of wine, spirits and sake qualifications, has introduced online exams for its English language Level 1 awards in wines, spirits and sake and its Level 2 awards in wines and spirits, as of June 1, 2020.
This development forms part of WSET’s ongoing digital strategy to enable as many students as possible to continue with their learning during the current Covid-19 crisis.
Although students can currently take the majority of WSET courses online, until now they have had to sit an offline exam to complete a WSET qualification. With social distancing guidelines in place across most of the world, many exams have been cancelled or postponed until the situation changes.
The introduction of online exams means that students can now study for, and complete, WSET’s English language Level 1 and 2 qualifications from home. This gives them the flexibility to study for, and take, their exams anywhere in the world.
WSET’s online exams are carried out using remote invigilation. Remote invigilation enables students to sit their exam at home on a computer while being monitored via webcam, screen sharing technology and a secondary recording device, which can simply be a smartphone.
The remotely invigilated online exams in English have been successfully piloted and will be rolled out through WSET’s network of 800 plus course providers across the world. Students will still have the option to sit a traditional paper-based classroom exam if that is their preference. WSET is also continuing to develop computer-based testing to enable students to sit exams online in the classroom with their local course provider.
